There is a fantasy popular among pacifists, rooted in the notion that all human babies are born pure and benevolent ... that violence and savagery are acquired traits, picked up through television or bad role-model adults. This fantasy is in direct contradiction to the forces of evolution; like it or not, everyone reading this post is a descendent of murderers and thieves. Indeed, we are the sons and daughters of the most aggressive, the most ruthless Neanderthals who survived countless millennia of competitive struggle against roving predators and rival human tribes; we carry the killer instincts of our violent forbearers just as surely as baby cub lions bear genes that will one day transform them into merciless gazelle-killing machines.

Yet that Utopian fantasy persists. Our only obstacle are those 'mean kids' ... and the 'right' genocide campaign is all that stands between us and a permanent, violence-free paradise.

What stark, raving lunacy.

People in my father's family were considered the 'mean kids' of China sixty years ago - 'greedy' landowners who dared to plant more food than they can eat and hire local peasants to harvest the excess for sale in the markets. For their 'mean' insistence that others pay for the food taken from that farm, members of my family were imprisoned, executed or 'disappeared' during the Cultural Revolution, along with millions of others. And thanks to the relentless effort of the People's Liberation Army in killing off those 'mean' deviants, modern China is a crime-free paradise.

Or is it?

Ultimately, the Pacifist Fantasy is riddled with serious flaws - moral, logistical and biological. Even its end-game ideal is unsustainable; how long can we expect a tribe of 'nice' pacifists to survive if they are unable to summon the requisite violence needed to defend themselves against the wolf-packs that skulk at the edge of their tribe, eyeing their resources, and sizing them up for the kill?

The Philosophy of Dynamism

Christians dream of a Heaven, where their salvation and happiness are frozen in time ... forever free from sin and temptation. Likewise, pacifists envision a static world free from the forces of evolution, where every appetite can be met without struggle or effort.

The philosophy of Dynamism rejects both notions.

We are not the *end* of evolution or history, we are in the middle of it.

Evolution's best gift to humanity is that unique ability to adapt to external changes and threats; our worst crime against nature would be to deny our children the ability to exercise this gift.

Struggle and competition are essential to hone our best qualities and cull our worst. How we deal with difficult people is a test of our civilization; efforts to mollycoddle kids and insulate them from the necessary struggles to develop survival instincts and mental resilience are ultimately the most patronizing form of child abuse we can visit upon them.